


Once Upon A Dream

by Rosage



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, implications of self-harm for how magic works in this game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 19:19:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11653032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosage/pseuds/Rosage
Summary: Genny creates her own companions.





	Once Upon A Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Fayery for previewing this.

Genny winces as the door creaks shut behind her. She presses against the wood and slides to the ground, where she cradles her knees and counts her breaths. Celica taught her how, and she never wants to disappoint Celica—but in between five and six, her mind drifts away.

_ The knight arrives at the tower. Through a spyglass, the knight catches a glimpse of the maiden’s face... _

She shivers and draws her knees in. Daydreaming can’t help, not with the face that invades her fantasy. Luckily she was kneeling off to the side, unnoticed, when the woman entered the priory. But from her vantage point she saw the ruby lips, and the paint around the woman’s eyes, and she thought for a second...

No. The woman spoke with Nomah about a trade of fish and alcohol, all that ever leaves the island, all that’s worth coming here to take away.

Her nails dig into her legs. Listening carefully for footsteps, she hears none. Usually she only does non-healing spells when nobody is in the building, but if she sits here, surely her body can serve as a lock. She will be quiet. Invisible.

She’s good at that.

With that thought, she starts mouthing an invocation to Mila. It slips into a language only clerics and scholars understand, one where words loop together and every  _ s  _ sounds like a hiss. Today the pain hits her shins; she’ll have to hide any bruises with stockings. Her closed eyes see flashes of blue that leave spots swimming behind her lids. 

When she opens them, four warriors stand in her room. Though she’s panting even harder than before, she beams. Until now she’s only been able to summon three.  _ Thank you, Mila. _

From down here, the warriors tower over her, but she doesn’t mind. Any facial features they have are obscured by her vantage point and a wavering aura, giving her leave to paint them as she wishes. They stand still, arms at their side, awaiting her orders.

Again she listens, but the only sound is the faint whistle of wind slipping through a crack in the stone. Still, when she regains her breath, she sticks to a whisper. 

“Once upon a time, on the continent of Archanea, there existed a village so far inland that its residents had never seen fish.”

She pauses; don’t fish swim in streams and lakes? Well, no matter. This is her story, and she’s had nothing but fish for supper in fortnights.

“The villagers feasted on turkey, roast lamb, and every pastry you can imagine. Sometimes, pirates--um, sometimes, bandits would attack the village for all of its delicious food. However, a brave, strong hero lived in the village, and the hero drove away the bandits every time.”

One of Genny’s warriors takes up a lance and stabs the one beside it. That warrior disappears in a burst of blue smoke, and something within Genny goes numb. 

It’s fine; they’re just playing. She doesn’t need that many characters.

“One day, instead of a bandit, a beautiful maiden came to the village.” Pausing for breath, she rubs her aching shins and realizes how heavy her bones feel. “Unlike the village girls, who were all full from feasting, this maiden’s clammy skin clung to her ribs. The moment she arrived, she collapsed in the hero’s arms.”

The warrior that picked up the lance sets it aside to approach. Despite his display, she feels no fear when he scoops her up. His face is as smooth as a Mila statue, and his skin is as grey, though not chipped--but his arms don’t feel solid underneath her, as if she’s lying on a cloud.

“Before he could carry the maiden into the village, she began to undergo a miraculous transformation. Scales appeared on her legs, which morphed together into a tail.  _ I came from the sea _ , she told him.  _ I cannot live on the land _ .”

Genny’s lips purse. She doesn't want to the sea, but that’s the direction the story is taking her. 

“The hero’s jaw nearly dropped,” she continues with a yawn, peering up at the warrior’s empty eye sockets. Nothing flickers within them. “But gripped with the urge to take care of the maiden, he vowed to carry her all the way to the shore...”

She curls in on herself as the warrior crosses the room to set her into bed. She doesn’t know when she closes her eyes, only that her cold ankles make her open them, and the room is empty.

Closing them again so that she won’t have to look at her legs, she grasps at the sheet to pull it over her before the last of her energy drains.

In her dreams, waves crash against the sand, carrying a strange boat ashore.


End file.
